Informational Sites Merriam-Websterhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/ Merriam Webster is an encyclopedia-based website that includes an online dictionary, thesaurus, and even a Spanish- English translation tab. It has fun and unique tools such as “Word of the Day” and the most frequently looked up words. In any English class, defining words and synonyms are crucial so it’s important that students have access to an encyclopedia that is quick and convenient. That’s why this website is appropriate for students K-12 that need to define words or find synonyms. RhymeZonehttp://www.rhymezone.com/ RhymeZone is a website that help students with rhyming by typing in a word and giving them all the words that rhyme with it. The student can even organize the results by syllables and letters. This website has many other features such as poems from Mother Goose, Shakespeare, and famous quotes. This website would be extremely helpful for students when writing poetry that require rhyming and is appropriate for any grade level. Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ Purdue OWL provides writing resources and instructional material that help students become better writers. Its features include helping with general writing, researching and citing a paper, job search writing, and even instruction for ESL learners. I have used this site many times and have found it extremely helpful when writing big papers, especially research papers. This is a great website for high school students in an English class that have advanced writing skills and need tips on how to make their papers better. Spark Noteshttp://www.sparknotes.com/ Spark Notes is a website that provides students with study guides on popular literary novels. It allows students to review summaries of novels by each chapter as well as themes, characterization, motifs, symbolism, and conflicts. It also includes author biographies, student blogs, and videos based on the novels. Even though I wouldn’t want my students being dependant on this website instead of actually reading the books, I think it is a helpful resource when trying to get a better understanding of the novels. This is a good website for a high school literature class. Ipl2 For Teenshttp://www.ipl.org/div/aplus/stepfirst.htm This website helps students with step by step research and writing. The website takes students through six steps: getting started, discovering and choosing a topic, looking for and forming a focus, gathering information, preparing to write, and writing the paper. This website is extremely helpful for high school or middle school students in an English subject area who need help with the process of writing a paper. Writing a paper can be very stressful on students and by breaking the process down into steps can really give them confidence in their writing skills. Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internethttp://shakespeare.palomar.edu/ This is a study guide website strictly on Shakespeare and his works. It includes a biography, the timeline of his life and works, summaries, analysis, and recommendations to different websites that will help students with the study of Shakespeare. The subject area is English or Literature and is appropriate for high school students that are reading Shakespeare’s works.
Interactive Sites Activities for ESL Studentshttp://a4esl.org/ Although this website is for English as a Second Language students, it can be very helpful for any student when studying grammar. This website includes grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, and crossword puzzles ranging from easy to difficult. Because students can select their difficulty, this site would be appropriate for students from 4-12 learning about grammar in an English class. Daily Spelling Beehttp://www.zdaily.com/words.shtml Daily Spelling Bee provides students with three definitions everyday and asks the student to correctly spell the word. This site also includes different quizzes, education games, quotes, and jokes to keep them entertained. It would be fun to use this site as a real Spelling Bee competition for my students which will ultimately help them with their spelling and vocabulary. Based on the words they ask you to spell, I would consider this site appropriate for high school or middle school students in an English class.
Teacher Resource Sites Poetry Classhttp://www.poetryclass.net/index.htm This website’s motto is “Taking the fear out of teaching poetry.” Writing poetry may be one my weakest skills in English, so this website really appealed to me. Some of its features include lesson plans, interviews with poets, and inset training. This site would be most helpful in a high school English class when teaching my students how to write successful poetry. Daily Grammarhttp://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html Daily Grammar is a lesson plan- based website that focuses on different parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and the mechanics of grammar. It includes 440 lessons and 88 quizzes that are categorized in an extremely organizes manor. You can also buy a workbook from this website and includes an online blog for teachers. This site would be very helpful when teaching my students grammar at a middle school or high school level.
Merriam-Websterhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/
Merriam Webster is an encyclopedia-based website that includes an online dictionary, thesaurus, and even a Spanish- English translation tab. It has fun and unique tools such as “Word of the Day” and the most frequently looked up words. In any English class, defining words and synonyms are crucial so it’s important that students have access to an encyclopedia that is quick and convenient. That’s why this website is appropriate for students K-12 that need to define words or find synonyms.
RhymeZonehttp://www.rhymezone.com/
RhymeZone is a website that help students with rhyming by typing in a word and giving them all the words that rhyme with it. The student can even organize the results by syllables and letters. This website has many other features such as poems from Mother Goose, Shakespeare, and famous quotes. This website would be extremely helpful for students when writing poetry that require rhyming and is appropriate for any grade level.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Purdue OWL provides writing resources and instructional material that help students become better writers. Its features include helping with general writing, researching and citing a paper, job search writing, and even instruction for ESL learners. I have used this site many times and have found it extremely helpful when writing big papers, especially research papers. This is a great website for high school students in an English class that have advanced writing skills and need tips on how to make their papers better.
Spark Noteshttp://www.sparknotes.com/
Spark Notes is a website that provides students with study guides on popular literary novels. It allows students to review summaries of novels by each chapter as well as themes, characterization, motifs, symbolism, and conflicts. It also includes author biographies, student blogs, and videos based on the novels. Even though I wouldn’t want my students being dependant on this website instead of actually reading the books, I think it is a helpful resource when trying to get a better understanding of the novels. This is a good website for a high school literature class.
Ipl2 For Teenshttp://www.ipl.org/div/aplus/stepfirst.htm
This website helps students with step by step research and writing. The website takes students through six steps: getting started, discovering and choosing a topic, looking for and forming a focus, gathering information, preparing to write, and writing the paper. This website is extremely helpful for high school or middle school students in an English subject area who need help with the process of writing a paper. Writing a paper can be very stressful on students and by breaking the process down into steps can really give them confidence in their writing skills.
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internethttp://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
This is a study guide website strictly on Shakespeare and his works. It includes a biography, the timeline of his life and works, summaries, analysis, and recommendations to different websites that will help students with the study of Shakespeare. The subject area is English or Literature and is appropriate for high school students that are reading Shakespeare’s works.
Interactive Sites
Activities for ESL Studentshttp://a4esl.org/
Although this website is for English as a Second Language students, it can be very helpful for any student when studying grammar. This website includes grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, and crossword puzzles ranging from easy to difficult. Because students can select their difficulty, this site would be appropriate for students from 4-12 learning about grammar in an English class.
Daily Spelling Beehttp://www.zdaily.com/words.shtml
Daily Spelling Bee provides students with three definitions everyday and asks the student to correctly spell the word. This site also includes different quizzes, education games, quotes, and jokes to keep them entertained. It would be fun to use this site as a real Spelling Bee competition for my students which will ultimately help them with their spelling and vocabulary. Based on the words they ask you to spell, I would consider this site appropriate for high school or middle school students in an English class.
Teacher Resource Sites
Poetry Classhttp://www.poetryclass.net/index.htm
This website’s motto is “Taking the fear out of teaching poetry.” Writing poetry may be one my weakest skills in English, so this website really appealed to me. Some of its features include lesson plans, interviews with poets, and inset training. This site would be most helpful in a high school English class when teaching my students how to write successful poetry.
Daily Grammarhttp://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html
Daily Grammar is a lesson plan- based website that focuses on different parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and the mechanics of grammar. It includes 440 lessons and 88 quizzes that are categorized in an extremely organizes manor. You can also buy a workbook from this website and includes an online blog for teachers. This site would be very helpful when teaching my students grammar at a middle school or high school level.